This invention relates to a handled thermoplastic bag pack.
Thermoplastic handled grocery sacks have successfully competed with kraft paper grocery sacks and, indeed, are establishing an ever increasing share of the market. The many beneficial attributes of plastic grocery sacks are responsible for this success. Because of the nature of thin flexible thermoplastic film grocery sacks, the handleability, particularly during the bagging operation in supermarkets, leaves something to be desired.
A conventional manner of providing handled thermoplastic sacks is to arrange them in a lay-flat stack of 50, 100 or more and bond them together by way of an integral tab which extends upwardly from the bag mouth opening. This tab, in addition to providing the site at which the plurality of bags are bonded together, also constitutes the tear-off site for separation of individual bags from the bonded tabs. These bonded tabs also provide the site from which the pack of bags can be suspended from some suitable support means. For instance, a peg or flat tongue or similar suspension means may extend through an orifice in the bag tabs. U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,832 and 4,560,067, the subject matter of which are in their entirety, incorporated herein by reference, are examples of the type of thermoplastic grocery sacks and packs which form the subject of the instant invention.
While such bag pack assemblies generally function as intended during the support and dispensing of bags during a typical checkout procedure in a supermarket, for the purpose of easing congestion during checkout, any means which will assist in speeding up the checkout procedure would be an advance in this art. One cause for the slowdown in the bagging operation employing limp, thin-gauge thermoplastic film bags is the tendency of the walls of the bags and the handles of the bags to cling together. The supermarket employee is slowed down in the bagging procedure by a need to carefully separate the front from the back wall of the bag preparatory to opening the bag and positioning it properly on its bag holder so that the mouth of the bag can be opened to receive goods. Not only does the nature of the film promote film to film adherence but the fact that the bag packs have been packed close together following manufacture and during transportation contributes to the reluctance of the films to separate. In addition to this, because the front panel of each bag is connected to its suspension tab there is no place for the bagger to easily insert his fingers or hand in order to pull the front wall or panel of the bag away from the rear panel to facilitate bagging.
It is an object of the invention to present a new and novel bag pack assembly which is not subject to the shortcomings of prior art thermoplastic film bag packs.